Reconciliation Victoria's education officer, Jo Drummond, recently met with Kew High School to speak to the RAP Working Group - the drivers who start this journey for the school, and amongst a number of Year 12 students who sit within the WG.
‍
The team provided Jo with some words as to why they wanted to go down this path and what reconciliation and truth telling means to Kew High School.

The RAP Working Group have given us permission to share their statement.

Kew High School - RAP Journey
‍‍
Our school is a celebrated place of learning, yet we recognised the limitations of our education on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and saw potentially culturally unsafe practices embedded in our learning environment. This awareness of culturally inappropriate engagement, and the drive to do better and to build reconciliation into everything we do is what initiated Kew High School’s RAP.
‍
From the outset, we wanted to emphasise actions rather than words.

We started within our school, running talks on the ongoing consequences of the Stolen Generations, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders’ disproportionate representation in our prisons. This was valuable and necessary in ensuring that before we tangibly ‘completed’ any RAP actions of the Narragunnawali program, we understood why each action is significant for change. This could only be achieved through building our cultural competence.

The road to our RAP cannot be walked without the expertise and guidance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and expanding our Reconciliation network. In our frequent meetings, we hope to connect with Community through guest speakers and other stakeholders in Reconciliation.
Thus far, we have been fortunate to have consultation with our local Koori Engagement and Support Officer, Seth Nolan, who gave us so many ideas on how we could connect our school to country and community, such as looking into the development of a Song line to link important sites and locations in the school.

We have also heard from Jo Drummond, an education officer from Reconciliation Victoria, who spoke to our team about the work of her organisation, which is helping pave the way for Reconciliation across Victoria.
Jo helped us recognise the inadvertent ways Victorians may display culturally unsafe practices in schools, and how to change.

While community engagement is an utmost priority of our RAP, our working group very much sees the actions as our responsibility. There is so much important work to be done without adding to the cultural load visited uponAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

We know Reconciliation is a continuous journey. This has been our starting point - but there is no endpoint. We will always be aspiring to learn more and strive to do better. There has been plenty of important discourse in our working group to ensure that Reconciliation is more than a word.
It is an idea that lives in the hearts and minds of all members of our school community, as we move forward, creating a school strengthened by the commitment to work more closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for a better future.

Ellie Hobbs
‍Current Year 12 Student

Well done to all educators and students at Kew High School, for continuing the momentum in their RAP Journey.

Kew High School: Acknowledgement of Country.

‍
To learn more about how Reconciliation Victoria can support your school and early learning service's journey in reconciliation, contact us at education@reconciliationvic.org.au